(07-04-2017 02:44 PM)BDKJMU Wrote:  I normally wouldn't advocate emulating Western Europeans in a lot of areas, but this is one where I wish we would. Especially the Germans (I've spent a few hundred days here). And its not like Germany is sparsely populated. 80 some million people down to an area the size of Montana.
-Have to be 18 to get a license, and it's much harder to get a one (unlike the US where any idiot with a pulse can get one).
-The left lane is strictly for passing.
-It is illegal to pass on the right lane, which isn't a problem because you don't have idiots hanging out in the left lane.
These aren't just laws on paper- the Polizei do enforce them. Even heavy traffic seems to flow better than the US. Lower accident rate to boot than the US interstates.

In Europe it goes deeper than their enforcing the passing lane. Somehow or other using the left lane for passing only has been cooked into the European culture. I spent a fair amount of time as a passenger in Italy with an Italian driver who scared the hell out of me with the speeds he was driving. My American driving sensibilities told me that someone in the right lane was going to randomly pull into the passing lane and we were all going to be dead. After about the third day it became clear that people take a good long look at whats coming before they pull into the passing lane. The other revelation was that when we would come up on someone in the passing lane going slower than us, flashing our lights resulted in their immediate departure from the passing lane. In this country flashing lights will in many cases result in the slower vehicle staying in the passing lane just to make some juvenile statement.